Mises Institute
Monday, December 22, 2025
 
 

If you’ve been watching business cycles since the pre-2009 era, you know that the National Association of REALTORS® never admits that anything is going badly until it’s undeniable. It seems we are now entering the phase when the Association starts to admit there may be a problem. The solution? Lower prices.

Also, Thorsten Polleit today reminds us that the iron law of oligarchy ensures that democracy is an illusion. “The people” don’t rule. Oligarchs do.

Ryan McMaken, Editor-in-Chief
 
 
Home Prices and Sales Fall. Can Sellers Count on Lower Interest Rates?
Ryan McMaken
With employment fundamentals so weak, the real way to increase home sales is to cut prices further. That, of course, is not what sellers want to hear.
 
READ MORE +
 
 
The Illusion of Democracy: The “Iron Law of Oligarchy”
Thorsten Polleit
“Political globalism” bears the unmistakable signature of an oligarchized democracy. No matter how we vote, a small elite manages to get its way on its central issues.
 
READ MORE +
 
 
Looking Back
and Forth
 
Gold is up, bitcoin is cooling, the yield curve turning. 2026 could un-invert the story.
 
LISTEN +
 
 
Why We Hate
Thomas Hobbes
 
Hobbes remains a popular spokesman for almost limitless state power.
 
LISTEN +
 
 
Combating Wokeness: An Interview with Paul Gottfried
Paul Gottfried’s perspective on the shenanigans coming from modern American higher education.
 
read more
 
 
Can I Get Some Coffee?
President Trump’s tariffs have “protected” people by disallowing peaceful, mutually-beneficial trades with others. As a result, coffee drinkers pay more for the same.
 
read more
 
 
Protecting a Societal Cancer with a Web of Lies
The modern western society is built upon the welfare state, yet it is that very welfare state that is undermining the social fabric.
 
read more
 
 
 
 
 
The Death of DOGE and the Triumph of the Establishment: A Review of 2025
 
The establishment tightened its grip.
 
WATCH NOW
 
 
 
 
Hayek for the 21st Century
 
The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of this collection of essays by Austrian School economist and Nobel laureate F. A. Hayek, whom Ludwig von Mises described as “one of the great economists” of all time. The vision of this book is to introduce a new generation of readers to Hayek’s writings.
 
ORDER YOUR FREE COPY +
 
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